July Fourth: An African American Perspective

Independence Day is indeed a curious holiday - it is a paradox wrapped in an enigma. It commemorates the independence of Europeans from other Europeans who came to these shores, stole the Native American's land and enslaved Africans to cultivate it. What is really ironic is that the first person to die in the fight for the European's independence from other Europeans was Crispus Attucks who was of African and Native American descent and himself a fugitive slave.

This means that the first person to die in the battle for America's independence was a person who had the least to gain from it. Crispus Attucks died for the cause of those who would for nearly a century continue the enslavement of his people and himself had he not been killed. I only wish that this strange mindset no longer existed. But there are still those among us who wish to give their lives to protect their erstwhile slave masters. Perhaps is it time that we reread Frederick Douglass's July 4th Oration delivered in 1852. It is a long speech. I have excerpted parts of it here. You may read the entire speech at http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2945. What follows are Frederick Douglass's words:

"I will not equivocate, I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, shall not confess to be right and just.... What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms- of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival".

What has changed? Slavery has been abolished! Well, not really. The 13th Amendment did not abolish Slavery entirely. The Amendment reads: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Duly convicted? What does that mean? Can one be duly convicted by a kangaroo court? Ninety-seven percent of federal convictions in the United States are plea bargained. There are virtually no criminal trials in the United States. Can one be duly convicted without a trial? Slavery by another name is rampant and legal in the United States. Can you say mass incarceration?

So today as you enjoy your families, fireworks, bar-b-que and beer. Ask yourself what does the Fourth of July mean to me? The answer may surprise you.

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Johnnie Cordero holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Doctorate in Jurisprudence. He is author of Total Black Empowerment: A Guide to Critical Thinking in the Age of Trump.